Eric Stelle's page

You don't have to spear ppl all the time, if your baddie is having too easy a time of it, sunder a weapon or shield, go for a grapple on the fighter, trip somebody... it may honk a player off that you smash their +1 Sword but at least it was not their face. Then, after a few good sunders (maybe giving the party an AoO to remove an image or two), give somebody who can take it a good stab to put the fear in them, when it gets to the point where you think that the monster and the party and go at it without TPK (Maybe just 1-2pk), let loose. Just because you can stab ppl and the monster likes to mix it up in melee does not mean hasted baddie TPK... unless you want it to.

I hope to be writing more of these, and I hope I've made a good impression on the folks at Paizo with this one. I'm not sure how far ahead they have writers working already, but as of right now I am not scheduled to write another one. There are a lot of them coming out this year though, so maybe I'll get the chance!

:crosses fingers:

The Rambling Scribe

I hope you do. It was a fun adventure for sure.

Sincerely,

The Druid from the A Team

Hell, nothing fancy but I would love to have a decent GM tactical tool with a player client. I have not been terribly impressed with the one out there presently. RPG Explorer looks to be nice and they are much nicer to talk to in person than the "other guys" but the "other guys" have an application with player clients that a GM can push maps too (though I know RPGEx is going to push a GM version that looks nice but don't know about player version that syncs with it tho).

I don't want to rule out use of minis and just have ppl staring at laptop screens but I would relish a game where a player group storms a castle only to have to duck and weave their way through the field of fire from longbows at long range. Or a party on mounts runs from mounted soldiers and, as a GM, I am able to deal with variations in movement from the mounts (or players chasing somebody for that matter). Or heaven forbid, flying encounters without minis standing on giant D6's or other eleveation tools.

I mean, most battle mats can't handle that kind of range and conventions to fence them in are OK but I like to give my players freedom - heaven forbid if the player compounds the issue and takes feats that expand their range. Not to mention the dreaded "I go off the side of the your battle mat 50 feet" (which can be tracked but those methods are unsexy).

Point being that a lot of developers are in the right direction but I don't think we're there yet. I guess I will have to keep cheering on RPGEx or hoping that the "other guys" can work out the kinks.

Example: I made a 20 lv fighter with only 200,000 gp of gear. I went one on one melee with Great Wrym Red Dragon and kill him in 3 rounds. With no critical hits.

That's a poorly run Great Wyrm Red Dragon IMO. Dragons like that should never have made it past the wyrmling stage.

In other words, Improved natural attack is seemingly an option but the effect is so overwhelming that it reduces the option to an automation: everyone chooses the feat. Along the best practices in game design such an "option" should either be removed or changes should be made that turn it into a real option. If the feature is not important enough removing is the route to take.

I think that it is only an overwhelming choice when points of damage done and body count are the measure of a player's performance at the table. Granted, everyone wants to get in there and kick some boo-tay but my thoughts on that as a GM are that if the player wanted to be a melee DPS machine then monk was not the best choice of character for them to play. Monks are sure be effective at the things they do well... just like fighters are... just like wizards are and so on. Howeve, comparing Monk DPS to Barbarian DPS is comparing a cherry to a watermellon - sure, they both have seeds of some sort and are red but a cherry is not a watermellon and is much more delicious (IMO).

There are many other feats that are viable selections for Monks and folding Improved Natural Attack into the base features would make the monk more "fighter-y" and less "monk-y" in my book. It's good to have it as a feat because if you player feels compelled to to dish it out DPS, they can choose it just like the fighter can cross class or take steps to be more stealthy like a monk... and so on. But I do agree, for DPS, that is the most obvious choice.

Aegarn wrote:

My friend and I were in the 100% Andoran, 6 person group from Indy. We played Silent Tide on Sunday morning. (I was the trident-wielding Barbarian, he was the archer Ranger.) We had a great time and you did an awesome job. Very impressed with the PFS events at Gen Con this year.

Ah yes, the Knights Whose Names Starts With A (Except for Giles) ;)

I had a lot of fun running that event for you guys, and it was great being able to say that someone in the group used a trident (a first for everything!)

Looks like an ogre being attkacked by goblins IMO.

Fantastic product. Good to see a change of pace IMO. Excellent production values. Though I thought a read, "More maps of Magnimar showing exact district borders, avenue and plaza names, and the precise location of numerous locales can be found in the downloadable content for this volume, available at paizo.com/pathfinder."

Am I missing it or is it just not obvious enough for the likes of me?

Keep up the great work, you have earned my renewal and I look forward to more from this great product.